Youth, 17, charged with murder of Arnold student

January 05, 1991|By Peter Hermann | Peter Hermann,Peter Hermann is a reporter for the Anne Arundel County Sun, a suburban edition of The Baltimore Sun.

A 17-year-old boy linked by police to a group of New York drug dealers working in Annapolis was charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the execution-style slaying two weeks ago of a high school senior from Arnold.

Jamel Hayes of the 200 block of Clifton Place in Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged as an adult after turning himself in to Anne Arundel County police.

Darryll Downs, 18, of the 300 block of Ternwing Drive was killed Dec. 20. Police found the Broadneck High School senior's body sprawled on the front lawn of a home in the 1800 block of Copeland Street at Bywater Mutual Homes, a cooperative housing project off Forest Drive in Annapolis.

Officer Dermott Hickey, a spokesman for the Annapolis police, said Mr. Downs was attacked by two assailants. The first man held Mr.Downs, while the second assailant shot him in the back of the head with a small-caliber handgun, police said. Police have not found the weapon.

Police said yesterday the arrest of a second suspect, also from New York, was imminent.

Police alleged that Mr. Downs' assailants were part of a group of New York drug dealers and said the group might have been the first source of crack cocaine in Annapolis, in 1988.